Local people

Eight years ago, Pam Mercer of Lore City was critically injured in a horrendous car crash east of Cambridge.

She was hurt so badly that the consensus all around from the Alabama men who pulled her out of the wreckage to the angels in the ER was that she was a goner.

Her car collided with a semi tractor-trailer at Routes 265 and 40 the evening of March 23, 1995.

She came to symbolize the danger on Route 40 after Interstate 70 was closed due to a collapse, and all the traffic from one of Americas busiest highways was detoured onto the two-lane highway.

That Pam Mercer lived was called nothing short of a miracle by local medical experts.

As expected, Pam has lingering crash-related medical issues, including a bout with pneumonia last year. One of Pams legs was amputated about five months after the wreck, so, My good leg has to do all the work, which puts it under additional stress, she said last week. I havent been back in my wheelchair, though. My prosthesis is part of my everyday life.

She credits surgeon Jackson L. Flanigan at Southeastern Med for putting her back together after the crash, and their doctor-patient relationship will always be special.

Im still Dr. Flanigans little miracle, she said. God was with Dr. Flanigan that night.

Pam remains married to Jerry Mercer, a union boilermaker, and theyre planning to move soon into a better home. Son Eric is now 26 years old and living in California. Daughter Ashley is 14 and a student at Meadowbrook High School.

Today, Pam Mercer is full of gratitude for the miracle of life, and her spirit is contagious.

The wise man may have had Pam Mercer in mind when he said, To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven.

The Owls Nest

Tis the season for the Seneca Lake region to come alive, and one of the most-often asked questions we get is where in the world did the spot at the lake known as the Owls Nest get its name?

Kenny Hixson, 86, of Brick Road, knows the story behind the naming of the Owls Nest because he was part of it.

The moon that night in 1946 was unusually bright. Kenny and some friends and their wives were playing cards in the cabin he had recently built. There came a God-awful racket. The noise scared the women and some of the men. They had no idea what was out there.

They followed the sound.

There on a single-wire telephone pole they saw a huge horned owl. Kenny shot it, which a guy could do in those days.

The owl had a 54-inch wingspan. It was so impressive that when they showed it to the late Ceryl Hamilton, who was building a restaurant nearby, he said, Now I know what Ill call my restaurtant. The Owls Nest.

Hamilton had come from Licking County, where he owned a chicken farm. He opted to get out of the poultry business and open the restaurant on Seneca Lake. The lumber he used to build the place formerly was chicken coops.

Among neighbors and friends of Kennys at the Owls Nest when it was christened were Everett Bundy, who worked at the Ford garage in Quaker City; Earl Proctor, a mechanic at the old Suitt Bros. Manufacturing Co. in Cambridge; Leonard Lowry, who was in the billboard advertising business; and Ted Geiger, who was in construction.

Kenny built the first cabin on Lot 16 of what came to be known as the Owls Nest in 1946. He paid $300 for the lot. The lumber for Kennys cabin he harvested himself off Birmingham Road. He had to use a special 7 1/2-foot saw to cut the stout chestnut trees. And the red clay at the lake presented a formidable challenge in digging the cabins footer.

The hard work was worth it. Kenny still enjoys his cabin 57 years later.

Coming clean

Just after it was built, STAR Car Wash at 296 W. Main St. in Byesville faced an obstacle as serious as any obstacle a business can face:

It was not easy to get to.

Main Street in front of the new car wash was torn up because municipal waterlines were being upgraded.

Then there was street paving.

These projects went on for what seemed like eternity to many Byesville businesses, including the new car wash.

Owned and operated by Jennifer Warner, STAR Car Wash today is a clean and well lighted place. The facility is well maintained and all the equipment works.

The automatic system at STAR Car Wash does the job better than expected.